American Go E-Journal » Game Commentaries

Myungwan Kim 9p’s upcoming top game broadcasts have been arranged for the next month! These will be broadcast LIVE over the AGA’s YouTube and Twitch channels, www.youtube.com/c/usgoweb/live and www.twitch.tv/usgoweb. All times listed are PST.

As a special free bonus for all E-Journal readers, Michael Redmond’s 2nd round Kisei FT game commentary against Sato Masaharu 9P appears here. Full AGA members get exciting commentaries like this every week. The game commentaries alone are worth the price of AGA membership. For youth memberships the deal is even better, just $10 a year! To sign up for the members edition, register with the AGA here.

Michael gives this background for the game: “In the 2nd round of the Kisei FT played on 2015-12-03, I have White against Sato Masaharu 9P. Sato is known to be a strong fighting player, and has entered the Meijin league twice.“

As a special free bonus for all E-Journal readers, Michael Redmond’s recent Oza game commentary against O Meien 9P appears here. Full AGA members get exciting commentaries like this every week. The game commentaries alone are worth the price of AGA membership . For youth memberships the deal is even better, just $10 a year! To sign up for the members edition, register with the AGA here .

Michael gives a summary of this powerful game, “I have Black against O Meien 9P in this game. In a fight within White’s moyo, I was successful, up to a certain point…“.

If you missed the February 14 livestream of “Lee Changho 9p vs Cho Chikun 9p, the LEGENDS OF BADUK FINAL ROUND” you can catch it now on the AGA’s YouTube Channel. Lee Changho plays Cho Chikun (Chihoon), in the last round of the LEGENDS OF BADUK tournament featuring the greatest Korean players of the ’80s and ’90s; Myungwan Kim 9P comments, with Andrew Jackson.

In this 5th (of 6) round game of the 2015 Korean World Amateur Championships (KPMC) against Li ZhuoLiang from Hong Kong, Eric Lui walks us through his thinking process at key points. After staying calm during a big unclear middle game fight, Eric emerges with an attack on Li’s weak group. Eric then converts the attack into a territorial advantage to coast to a win.

If you missed Myungwan Kim 9P’s livestream commentaries earlier this week on the two semi-final Samsung Cup games between Lee Sedol and Ke Jie, you can now watch them at your leisure on the AGA’s YouTube Channel. With nearly 2,000 subscribers, the channel has really taken off this year, broadcasting live from the US Go Congress, the Chang Qi Cup and the Cotsen Open, attracting thousands of viewers who either watched live or later at their convenience. The channel has also become the place to find go players on YouTube, from gamer Dwyrin — whose videos have been viewed more than 5 million times — to Haylee (professional Hajin Lee), Nick Sibicky, Shawn Ray, Andrew Jackson and more, each of whom have been developing their own styles and attracting fans and subscribers. “I love your extremely positive personality!” one viewer told Haylee. “It makes your videos really enjoyable. Thank you for these amazing videos.”

It was no surprise that Na Hyun made the final of this tournament for players under 20, as he is one of the top young players in Korea. Among the Chinese players, one might have expected Yang Dingshin, rated 18th in the world, or Li Qincheng, who won the CCTV Cup, a TV tournament like Japan’s NHK Cup, last year, but Huang proved to be a dark horse. Actually, at 18 he is two years older than the other two Chinese representatives, so you could say he pulled rank.

The following commentary is an amplified version of the report in Go Weekly of the public commentary conducted by O Meien, with Mannami Nao 3P acting as his assistant.

The opening, with Black ignoring 8 to switch to the approach move of 9, is very popular these days. There are many examples of it from actual play. The same opening appeared in the play-off for third place. O: “In the old days, Black would have captured 16 instead of playing 21, but now this is the mainstream move. I don’t know which is better . . .” Formerly the moves to 21 were like a set opening, but now you often see the pattern to 25. The amount of research that has been carried out on this opening in China and Korea is incalculable. “But I don’t play it as White. I can’t understand why White burrows into the [top right] corner. Actually, this result gives a good contest, so probably my feel for go is out of whack.’ [Laughter from the audience] The two-space jump to 29 is also common. The hane of White 32 is also a vital point. O, on seeing Black 33: “This is a strong, calm move.” Instead of 33, you are tempted to play at A, but White has the attachment of B, so perhaps Black thinks this territory won’t amount to much. After gazing at 33 for a while, O expressed admiration. “I get it. He’s strong.” White 36. White thinks that the exchange for 37 will make 36 a forcing move when he attaches across the knight’s move with C.
Black 39 and 40 seem to be the par moves. O: “According to my feel for go, 39 should be at D. Na’s assessment is that the exchange for 40 makes 39 a forcing move rather than a bad move.” When Black expands the bottom with 41, White attacks inside by attaching at 42. The move at 21 leaves White with scope to play this move. O: “That’s why capturing the ladder stone is best.” Black responds by solidifying his side territory with 43 on. If instead Black hanes on top with 1 in Dia. 1 (left), White plays 2 and 4, then slides to 6; this will be more than Black can handle. After the game, Huang rapidly laid out the continuation to 19 and said that this was not bad for White. Huang: “I’ve finished researching the attachment of 43. I have confidence in the local variations.” White 54 is a good, calm move. O: “Moves like this reflect the player’s experience. “ At first, O had thought that the result to 52 was not interesting for White, but he started to revise his opinion on seeing 54 on the grounds that Huang was obviously satisfied and we could rely on his perception. White 60 is another calm move. Having played a forcing sequence on the right side, White believes that this is good enough. O commented at first that he couldn’t play 60, but White 62 convinced him that Huang knew what he was doing. It turned out later that both the players agreed that the game was good for White at this point. That’s why Black plays 61: he has to harass White’s sole weak group to get back into the game. When White ignores 61, 63 looks like the natural follow-up, but the players agreed later that attaching at 65 instead would have made the game more difficult. White’s solid extension of 64 works well. O: “This may have been the decisive point of the game.” That’s not to say that’s it’s a won game for White by any means, but he has an edge. Black 77, forestalling White E, is big, but so is White 78. Black 79 is an all-out move that clearly shows that Black feels he is behind. O commented that it may have been an overplay. It immediately struck O as being too deep. White 84. If White answers the peep at 90, Black intends to push down with 84, so countering with 84 is natural. The cut of White 92 is a good move. If Black answers at 97, White has the threat of F, so Black goes all out with 93. Black 99 extricates the center stones. If White cuts at 103, Black cuts at 102 and at this point Black is ahead in the capturing race. When White plays 100, however, Black has no choice but to reinforce at 103. White 112 is the knock-out punch: it makes miai of G and H, so Black has to resign. Huang: “There was a lot of pressure, but [winning] feels good. Next, I want to win a bigger international tournament.” Na: “I lost without being able to do a thing. I have regrets.” During his commentary, O commented that the strength of the top young Chinese and Korean players came from a mixture of reading ability and perception.
Incidentally, the day of the final was the first day that Huang wore a jacket instead of just a jersey. O commented that in China go is regarded as a sport, so the young players all wear jerseys. Often their training camps are held at the same venues as soccer training camps, so the players would feel funny if they dressed differently. O joked that they switch to suits when they turn 30. During this tournament, Ichiriki and the other Japanese representatives were turned out in natty suits and ties. One advantage of the Japanese system that struck me, however, is that the Japanese players are “socialized” earlier than the Chinese players. It was hard to get a word out of the Chinese teenagers in interviews, but the Japanese teenagers were already adept at public speaking. During the reception on the Thursday, Mannami called them up on to the stage at different times for mini “talk shows” TV-style and they all acquitted themselves well.
Mannami had an interesting comment about Korean players. She visited Korea to study go not long ago, and she said she was surprised by the way the young players chatted with each other until the start of the game. In Japan the players psych themselves up before the game, so there’s no chatting; the contest begins as soon as the players take their seats. (She used the sumo term “shikiri,” which refers to the long face-off before a bout begins.)

The American Go Yearbook 2014 Member’s Edition Collection has just been released. The annual compilation is one of the benefits of membership in the American Go Association, collecting the content of the Member’s Edition of the American Go E-Journal, the largest English language go publication in the world. “We appreciate member support of the AGA and hope that our members will find this collection a valuable and useful resource,” said EJ Managing Editor Chris Garlock. Click here for details on AGA membership. New this year (just added): all 2014 sgf files in a handy downloadable zip file.

Each week the E-Journal delivers original content from a team of contributors that now includes Michael Redmond 9P, Myung-wan Kim 9P, Yilun Yang 7P, Guo Juan 5P, longtime teacher Yuan Zhou 7D, the inimitable Kazunari Furuyama, as well as new US professionals Gansheng Shi 1P and Calvin Sun 1P.

The Yearbook also includes the EJ’s special reports on the 2014 U.S. Go Congress, the 2014 World Amateur Go Championship and the 2014 Cotsen Open. The handy online resource gathers links to this wealth of material, enabling members to quickly find what they’re looking for on a month-by-month list. Once selected, game records or PDFs open up quickly and easily for review or download. Click here for details on AGA membership.

As a special free bonus for all E-Journal readers, Yilun Yang’s recent Cotsen demo game commentary appears here. Full AGA members get exciting commentaries like this every week. The game commentaries alone are worth the price of AGA membership . For youth memberships the deal is even better, just $10 a year! To sign up for the members edition, register with the AGA here .

In this Cotsen demo game between strong pros, Yilun Yang 7P provides a detailed but clear fuseki analysis that players of all strengths can grasp. And stronger players will find Yilun Yang’s explanation of the middlegame’s attack and defense ideas especially insightful.

Yilun Yang 7P is one of the most popular go teachers in the US. You can reach him at yly_go@yahoo.com.

Shawn Ray, a 4 dan AGA member, asked his teacher — Kim SeungJun 9P from Korea — about the difference between the Mini and Micro Chinese Openings, which have become very popular recently. Even if you’re not familiar with either variation, you’ll find his explanation interesting. Each week full AGA members get useful information like this in full game commentaries. To sign up for the Members Edition, register with the AGA here.